A history of the Adult Education Association of Virginia

Abstract

This study was concerned with the founding and development of the Adult Education Association of Virginia (AEAV). The principal objectives of the study were to describe the organizational structure of AEAV; examine AEAV’s financial status at selected intervals; appraise the leadership and membership of AEAV; relate AEAV programs and activities to social, economic, and political trends; and explain the relationship of AEAV to other adult education organizations.

Sources of information were documents located in the official files of AEAV and the Adult Education Association of the United States of America (AEA/USA), to include minutes, correspondence, financial reports, membership lists, promotional brochures, and newsletters. Information was also collected from newspapers and personal interviews with individuals. Persons interviewed were questioned about events or activities in which they had participated or about which they had specialized knowledge, an approach that did not lend itself to the use of a standard data collection instrument.

Following a series of postwar meetings sponsored by the University of Virginia, adult educators gathered in October, 1951, in Richmond, Virginia, and organized AF.AV. From the beginning, AEAV’s principal instrument of program activities was its annual conferences. Regional conferences were used to publicize AEAV programs and to promote adult education. Contact with the membership between conferences was maintained by periodic issues of a newsletter. Operating funds were derived from membership fees, annual conferences, rebates from AEA/USA, and subsidies from state institutions.

Membership was never large but, except for women and minorities, it was representative of Virginia adult education activities. Recently, membership composition has changed and it now consists mostly of adult educators representing colleges and universities. AEAV members have chosen to ignore social, economic, and political forces and to concentrate their efforts on the technical aspects of adult education. In spite of a parochial approach to national issues, AEAV has good relations with other adult education organizations. As AEAV entered its fourth decade, members were considering a reorganization to broaden the membership base and to align the organizational structure more closely to that of the national association. Recommendations for further study concerned investigations of other adult education organizations.